


The Tenderness Held In Your Fingertips

by thelonelywriter



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, Fallen Angel Castiel (Supernatural), Fluff, Holding Hands, M/M, Stolen Moments, post season nine or ten maybe and we forget about season eleven and onwards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-14 08:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13586349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelonelywriter/pseuds/thelonelywriter
Summary: Dean has this thing with Cas’ hands. He didn’t used to have it, not when they got together or even a few months after. But, somehow, over time, he learned to appreciate them.He thinks it started when the soul talk started up, when Cas would offer information about pulling Dean from Hell. It wasn’t common talk, of course, and it wasn’t always happy either.Sometimes it was spoken during fights wherein Cas was trying to remind Dean just how much they’d been through even from the very start. But other times it would be spoken in tender moments. Tangled together on the bed, their hands would interlace and Cas would whisper sweet nothings about seeing a light in the darkness, Dean’s soul sitting there and waiting for a redemption well deserved.





	The Tenderness Held In Your Fingertips

**Author's Note:**

> so i wanted to write something soft and i basically just sat at my computer w/ a cup of coffee listening to 'la vie en rose' on repeat and then this just kinda came out. not substantial, purely self indulgent just 2 warn u all

Dean has this thing with Cas’ hands. He didn’t used to have it, not when they got together or even a few months after. But, somehow, over time, he learned to appreciate them.

He thinks it started when the soul talk started up, when Cas would offer information about pulling Dean from Hell. It wasn’t common talk, of course, and it wasn’t always happy either. Sometimes it was spoken during fights wherein Cas was trying to remind Dean just how much they’d been through even from the very start. But other times it would be spoken in tender moments. Tangled together on the bed, their hands would interlace and Cas would whisper sweet nothings about seeing a light in the darkness, Dean’s soul sitting there and waiting for a redemption well deserved.

At one point or another, Dean began to associate this ‘I Pulled You From Hell’ talk with Cas’ hands. They were the very things that grabbed him after all. They were the things that left that handshape print on Dean’s bicep that said a lot of silent things Cas wasn’t willing to offer back in the days where there was only tension and no relief from the damned ‘friends’ label.

So, now it’s natural, in lazy moments, soft moments, for Dean to toy with Cas’ hands.

It’s late in the afternoon and Dean and Cas are lying smooshed in the Impala while Sam is out on an ‘I Need Fresh Air And A Break From You Two’ break. They’re in the middle of a long hunt and practically all they’ve been doing is driving. But now they’re stopped on the side of the road in the middle of God knows where and Dean is lying with his back to Cas’ chest and their hands are dancing together.

They aren’t talking, the silence in the car is still and soft and neither of them mind it. But Dean’s hand is doing this little dance with Cas’, their fingers twining together only to separate and twine back together. Dean occasionally pulls away to run his thumb over Cas’ thumb joint or swipe his thumb over Cas’ palm.

Cas had fallen long ago, so the little scars on his hand that Dean has always had on his own hands are there, and they’re real, real as anything. Sometimes, a part of Dean aches when he knows Cas can’t do his magic little voodoo act and heal himself. Of course, Dean couldn’t care less about his own injuries, but Cas, Cas is different.

“Was Hell as terrible for you as it was for me?” Dean asks out of nowhere, his voice somewhat serious but holding an undertone of amusement that assures Cas that Dean doesn’t want to get into real Hell talk, he doesn’t want to talk about what went down there. He just wants to speak, break the silence in the car.

“Likely not,” Cas sighs from behind Dean.

“Why?” Dean questions, sounding somewhat intrigued, but also nonchalant.

“I wasn’t there for long. I was there on a mission. It was a terrible place, yes, but you were there, and you were all the light needed to assure almost anyone that salvation was possible,” Cas explains. Dean quirks a smile.

“You’re a flatterer, you know that?” Dean tells Cas, tracing a finger over the joints in Cas’ thumb.

“You know I only tell you the truth,” Cas assures Dean, nuzzling slightly into the side of his head. “Saving you was the one mission that I never regretted for a moment.”

“Not even once?”

“Not even once.”

Dean doesn’t know why that makes his heart dance in his chest, but it does.

“If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t blink.”

Dean smiles a little more and keeps looking over Cas’ hand, picking out the little scars. He knows what every one is from. Even the one Cas got from cutting his palm on the lid of a soup can.

Dean thinks of what it was like for Cas to have to go on that mission, to literally go to Hell and find Dean, and pull him out. Cas had always assured Dean that though the orders were given from higher ups to fulfill a plan, Cas had his own plan once Dean had gotten out of Hell. 

Dean takes Cas’ hand in his and squeezes it a little before bringing it up to his lips and pressing a soft kiss to the back of it. Dean can’t see, but he can tell Cas is smiling softly from behind him.

It’s the quiet moments like this, pauses in a hectic crazy life of trying to hunt things Dean isn’t so sure will ever go away where Dean feels like he can be content for once. It’s when Cas whispers a soft, ‘I love you,’ to Dean because he knows Dean’s thinking it but isn’t saying it. It’s in what feels like a pause in Dean’s entire lifetime that Dean can manage an ‘I love you too, Cas,’ and feel utterly calm. Saved, even.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me what you thought!!! i haven't written canon divergence in like forever, but this wasn't detailed enough to get into like how cas fell and all that jazz, it was just soft and random and hopefully one of you liked it!! thank you guys for reading!! <3


End file.
